May 03, 2022 (Nanowerk News) A dash of ruthenium atoms on a mesh of copper nanowires could be one step toward a revolution in the global ammonia industry that also helps the environment. Collaborators at Rice University’s George R. Brown School of Engineering, Arizona State University and Pacific Northwest National...
Magnetism helps futuristic cell research
May 03, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Scientists at Korea's Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST) have successfully sorted individual cells according to their size by making them jump off magnetic trampolines and into different clustering rooms. They published their results in the journal Advanced Science ("Magnetophoretic Micro-Distributor for Controlled...
Dual membrane offers hope for long-term energy storage
May 03, 2022 (Nanowerk News) A new approach to battery design could provide the key to low-cost, long-term energy storage, according to Imperial College London researchers. The team of engineers and chemists have created a polysulfide-air redox flow battery (PSA RFB) with not one, but two membranes. The dual membrane...
Search reveals eight new sources of black hole echoes
May 03, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Scattered across our Milky Way galaxy are tens of millions of black holes — immensely strong gravitational wells of spacetime, from which infalling matter, and even light, can never escape. Black holes are dark by definition, except on the rare occasions when they feed. As...
Spacecraft navigation uses x-rays from dead stars
May 03, 2022 (Nanowerk News) The remnants of a collapsed neutron star, called a pulsar, are magnetically charged and spinning anywhere from one rotation per second to hundreds of rotations per second. These celestial bodies, each 12 to 15 miles in diameter, generate light in the x-ray wavelength range. Researchers...
a new tool to control enzymatic reactions
May 02, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Spatiotemporal regulation of multistep enzyme reactions through compartmentalization is essential in studies that mimic natural systems such as cells and organelles. Until now, scientists have used liposomes, vesicles, or polymersomes to physically separate the different enzymes in compartments, which function as ‘artificial organelles’. But now,...
Automated synthesis allows for discovery of unexpected charge transport behavior in organic molecules
May 02, 2022 (Nanowerk News) A cross-disciplinary UIUC team has demonstrated a major breakthrough in using automated synthesis to discover new molecules for organic electronics applications. The technology that enabled the discovery relies on an automated platform for rapid molecular synthesis at scale—which is a game-changer in the field of...
Inserting mechanical drugs into living cells (w/video)
May 02, 2022 (Nanowerk Spotlight) HeLa cells (a lineage of continually dividing cells that have become the most widely used human cell line in biological research) have an average diameter of 20-21 µm. In nanotechnology terms this is quite large and so it is no surprise that researchers have been...
Nanotechnology enables visualization of RNA structures at near-atomic resolution
May 02, 2022 (Nanowerk News) We live in a world made and run by RNA, the equally important sibling of the genetic molecule DNA. In fact, evolutionary biologists hypothesize that RNA existed and self-replicated even before the appearance of DNA and the proteins encoded by it. Fast forward to modern...
Smartphone-powered microchip for at-home medical diagnostic testing
May 02, 2022 (Nanowerk News) A University of Minnesota Twin Cities research team has developed a new microfluidic chip for diagnosing diseases that uses a minimal number of components and can be powered wirelessly by a smartphone. The innovation opens the door for faster and more affordable at-home medical testing....